1970s

I became interested in pop bottles (I grew up in the Chicago area where we all said “pop”) and related stuff when I was about 12 years old. I had gone inside an old garage that was attached to a neighborhood house that was being torn down and inside was a cache of un-returned...

When it comes to using a telephone these days, most people spend more time on a cellular phone than a hardwired device. Even the phonesets we use that are tethered to an outlet tend to be wireless. Folks are cancelling their traditional telephone service in exchange for their cellphone plans. And you can forget...

Its been a tough winter here in New York City. We’ve had record snowfall and here at the beginning of March we’ve still got 20 degree temperatures. I just want to go camping on a hot summer day, by a lake, with a couple of friends and a rope swing. Damned if Google doesn’t...

As a nine-year old, I received my first hip-hop cassette tape, “On the Rap Tip,” as holiday gift from my mother. (My second cassette was a bootleg of 2 Live Crew I stole from my older sister!). I was a Midwestern kid learning about urban music from two coastal cities I was nearly equidistant...